Project # 161
Center name: Dr. T's Research Lab
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Gunes Murat Tezcur
Project description
The phrase "religious extremism" and its equivalents have been widely invoked in public discourse, media, and scholarly research since the Cold War. Journalists and politicians use it to describe everything from civil-war massacres to terror attacks, from lynchings to genocidal campaigns, yet the criteria for when violence counts as “religious” shift with context and audience and is often associated widespread and unquestioned assumptions about how certain groups are presumed prone to brutality. This project uncovers the underlying assumptions and power dynamics that influence when conflict is labeled “religious” and when it is not by mapping how such phrases are used across major languages including Arabic, English, Mandarin, Persian, Russian, and Spanish.
Terms like “religious extremism,” “religious war,” “sectarian violence,” “religious terrorism,” “sacred violence,” and “religious conflict” carry immense symbolic and emotional weight in public debate, in terms of justifying certain forms of condemnation and policy-action. They also trigger extraordinary measures: curfews, censorship, surveillance, military intervention, and the restriction of religious rights. Governments and dominant groups may frame dissent or opposition as “religious extremism” to delegitimize political demands, silence critical voices, or justify repression. Labeling some acts as religious while treating others as political reinforces unequal standards of legitimacy and blame. These asymmetries affect what demands are heard, protected, marginalized, or punished. It is therefore essential to scrutinize how language can be used to stigmatize religious faith, or concentrate power under the guise of public safety and national security.
Under the guidance of Dr. Tezcür and a doctoral student at SPGS, project participants will harvest media reports, political speeches, sermons, and academic texts keyed to translations of “religious extremism,” “holy war,” “sectarian conflict,” and related terms. This mapping exercise will inform critical perspective of how we make sense of the relationship between religion and violence.
